A historic strike by Cal State University faculty may be averted in the next couple of days, members of the union representing professors announced Wednesday.

“There is hope that talks between the California Faculty Association and the California State University may avert a five-day, systemwide strike on all 23 campuses scheduled to begin April 13,” CFA officials said Wednesday in a written statement.

According to CFA — which represents 26,000 tenured and tenure-track instructional faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches — the union and management are working on a solution to their fight over pay, with faculty having called for a 5 percent raise and the Long Beach-based Chancellor’s Office offering a 2 percent increase.

Both sides have agreed to honor a 48-hour blackout period on communicating with the media, according to the CFA.

CFA leaders and CSU officials plan to hold a joint news conference on Friday in Sacramento, possibly to announce a settlement.

“Neither party will respond to media inquiries nor conduct media interviews regarding the status of negotiations or strike preparations during the blackout period,” CFA officials said in its statement.

An independent fact-finder in March determined that the 23-campus system should give professors the raise they’ve been demanding for nearly a year.

Bonnie Prouty Castrey, chairwoman of a three-person panel that included representatives from the CSU and faculty union, said in her report that the Great Recession severely impacted the faculty at CSU. While some progress has been made through targeted pay increases to restore the loss of competitive salaries, faculty suffer from structural salary issues as well as a lack of substantial general salary increases.

Earlier this week, campus officials in Southern California planned conference calls with reporters to discuss preparations for the strike, which faculty members have called the largest walkout in a public university in the history of the U.S.

Those calls were canceled at the last minute.

The news Wednesday comes as faculty and administrators at all 23 have been preparing for a walkout, including disseminating information to students about how this affects studies and potentially graduation.

On Tuesday, Mark Wiley, associate vice president of faculty affairs at Cal State Long Beach, sent a note to faculty outlining rights and responsibilities of faculty and students during strike activities.

“I know we all have the best interests of our students as a central concern,” he wrote. “It would be a courtesy to your students to let them know ahead of time if you are canceling classes. Also, for those of you who do hold classes and have attendance policies or other requirements that affect students’ grades, please be understanding and lenient if some students are absent as they may be uncomfortable coming to campus during the strike.

“On a more personal note, I would love to see the impasse over the compensation negotiations solved in order to avert a strike,” he said.